Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

The War in Fountain - Gnrrr. History.

Yes, I like sticking a silent-N in my grrrs. Bitch about it somewhere else.

I want to start off with an excellent quote from Wartzilla:

"Without old grudges, what the fuck are we supposed to care about in this game?"

So there was some chatter today because Goonswarm may or may not have extended an olive branch to The Retirement Club [4O1K]. Montolio reported that Zeroniss (the CEO of 4O1K) was approached:

(7:47:25 PM) Montolio: I heard a rumor
(7:47:34 PM) Zeroniss: oh?
(7:47:47 PM) Montolio: That Mittani offered to make you guys full members of the CFC with sov and fistfuls of ISK
(7:48:03 PM) Zeroniss: not mittani himself
(7:48:14 PM) Zeroniss: but someone in senior GSF came to me yeah

Neither Zeroniss or the GSF deny that communication took place. What may have been offered has only been speculated at. It probably doesn't much matter what might have been offered, to most people, the fact that some sort of offer was put on the table is the surprising thing. And it is this that stirred up a bit of a hornet's nest.

The Retirement Club is seen as a breeding ground for old Band of Brothers corporations. And Band of Brothers [BoB] is an old, old enemy of Goonswarm Federation. Going back to 2006.

I'm not invested in the entire BoB thing. That's well before my time. I know some of the basic history. The Great War. The downfall of BoB. Kenzoku (which was a direct result of BoB's downfall.) But it is all just history to me. I view it with interest, but I've no emotional investment in any of it.

So, I started looking into some more history. What makes The Retirement Club a BoB haven? There didn't seem to be any link with Zeroniss. While he's the CEO of 4O1K, he's also a member of Shiva. Shiva used to be a member of Morsus Mihi. The Goon wiki characterizes Morsus as anti-BoB. So that had me a bit stumped.

Asking around on Jabber, I learned that three old and honoured BoB corps, Reikoku, FinFleet and Evolution, are also members of 4O1K. So, that explains the Band of Brothers connection.

I then wondered why Shiva, previously of Morsus Mihi, would ally with old BoB corporations? The clue there seemed to lie with Zeroniss. He's only been with Shiva since 2011. Previously he was quite active with EVE University. Not unlike myself, he has no direct experience with BoB. So his choice in allies is not coloured by grudges from the past.

Which is why there are two opposing viewpoints within the GSF concerning the news from Montolio today. Some folks want nothing at all to do with Band of Brothers, years have not diluted their distaste. Some feel that the Great War is ancient history, its time to let go of the past, let bygones be bygones. There's a validity to both arguments.

As EVE Online ages, as old players leave and new players arrive, relationships between old enemies are going to become incestuous, those old enemy and ally lineages are going to become muddled. The Retirement Club becomes an excellent example of how a community evolves over time. It consists of both BoB groups and anti-BoB groups, and most of the people in those groups, they probably don't even know that they're not supposed to be allies. They probably don't know any of the history between their organizations.

And then you have Goonswarm initiatives like Jabberlon5:

Jabberlon 5 is a project to bring all leaders [of] major powers in EVE Online together onto a common communications platform where conversations can take place outside of the normal public channels, without posturing or analysis by third parties.

This is another effort that has diluted those historical grudges. For good or bad, it depends on your perspective. It's brought old enemies together, and through it, friendships and alliances have likely been made. The result has likely been a more peaceful nullsec over the years.

All of this brings us back to Wartzilla's complete statement:

"Without old grudges, what the fuck are we supposed to care about in this game? What happened to caring about why we fight, or what side we're actually on? If there's none of that we're reduced to flying RvB in nullsec."

I wish I had some of that historical dislike for BoB, because I think there's something to Wartzilla's statement. I'm not saying we should hate our in-game enemies in the real-world, we should certainly share beers with them at Fanfest and such, laugh, tell them they suck at playing EVE, but still shake their hands. If we lose our grudges, what are we left with? Pre-arranged wars, Shadoo-style?

Thankfully, it's not a question we have to worry about right at this minute, because we have Fountain moons to take, Test to embarrass, and ships to destroy. But when the war is over, it will be curious to see how western nullsec settles out once again.
Source: The War in Fountain - Gnrrr. History.